Brumby Protects Minister Instead of Vulnerable ChildrenThursday, November 26, 2009 After ten years of Labor it is clear that the Brumby Government cannot be trusted to protect our most vulnerable children, Shadow Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge said today. A damning report by the Victorian Ombudsman has revealed an unprecedented scandal in Victoria’s child protection system. The Ombudsman found that the Brumby Labor Government failed to protect vulnerable children from being injured and neglected, manipulated child protection records and allowed the child protection system to fall into crisis amidst systematic incompetence and negligence. When asked to explain the resounding failures in child protection, the Minister for Community Services succeeded only in exposing her own incompetence and inability to do her job. The Minister failed to answer direct questions in Parliament today, including when she knew that her department was breaking the law. The Minister should hang her head in shame. Despite Labor’s rhetoric, the number of at-risk and abused children not yet allocated a case manager continues to increase, workers continue to leave the system in droves and families and children are still unable to get the support they need. Over the last ten years, this Government has received hundreds of recommendations and received more than 30 reports and reviews warning of a crisis in child protection, yet vulnerable children still suffer without the support they need. The reality is that John Brumby is more interested in protecting the Minister than he is in protecting vulnerable children. Lisa Neville is so clearly incompetent that nothing will change until she is sacked by the Premier.
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